We believe the Holy Spirit demands the full inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ

) people in the life of the church. For longer than the Israelites wandered in the wilderness the United Methodist Church has systematically and categorically denied the full humanity of LGBTQ people, intentionally deepening the soulstultifying sin of discrimination, quadrennium after quadrennium. This injustice has been sustained by silence, timidity and cowardice instead of prophetic love. We have chosen the worldly rewards of ecclesial ambition, institutional maintenance and idolatrous allegiance to legalism over basic Gospel-mandated inclusion. We have fundamentally misunderstood what Heaven’s presence on earth requires of us. Having experienced the liberating truth imparted by the Spirit, we can no longer sit in silent acquiescence before the unjust laws of The United Methodist Church. We will settle for nothing less than the complete removal of all discriminatory language against LGBTQ people in The Book of Discipline. The usual approaches of legislation-writing, story-telling, holy conferencing and relationship-building have served their purpose, but have failed to end the discrimination that is destroying our church. Because we love The United Methodist Church, and because we cannot continue to invest in approaches that have failed to halt the steady advance of intolerance, we hereby declare that until and through General Conference 2016, we will engage in a three-dimensional strategy to abolish the policies of discrimination against LGBTQ people. We will: Disclose(t), Divest and Disrupt.

DISCLOSE(T)
The time has come and gone for behind-the-scenes, closeted support of LGBTQ people. As LGBTQ Christians and straight allies, we will speak out publicly about our lives, our families, our friends, and our ministries. We will claim equality for ourselves and for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. Some of us have been secretly conducting same-gender unions and weddings. These actions will continue, but our silence is over. We will no longer self-censor. Unafraid, we will disclose our convictions, identities and actions to conference leadership, Boards of Ordained Ministry, superintendents and bishops. We will tell a new story of love and inclusion in our pulpits and pews, by written word and social media.

DIVEST
In membership vows, we promise to support the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. However, in doing so we are complicit with policies and practices we believe to be both un-Christian and unconscionable. For too long, the cost of injustice has been hidden by our loyalty to the institution. Beginning now, we will redirect our time and treasure to efforts aimed at ending discrimination against LGBTQ people. We will divest our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness from all structures within the church that support the status quo. We will widely publicize our actions and rationale.

DISRUPT
The time for polite persuasion has passed. To ensure discrimination no longer flows uninterrupted, we will protest and disrupt local, national and global events. We will undermine all policies that limit or deny the full participation of LGBTQ United Methodists in the life of the church. Through our media campaign and physical presence, we will stand in the way of business as usual. If it is clear that the United Methodist Church is going to continue enshrining discrimination in the Book of Discipline, we will disrupt the 2016 General Conference in Portland, OR.